Southampton’s win against Spurs at St Mary’s means Cardiff are still in the bottom three, but they can reflect on this victory with massive satisfaction.

City made West Ham look a poor outfit – and they are far from that. The visitors had 71 per cent possession, but whenever they had the ball a wall of blue met them head on.

Cardiff have eight fixtures left and have given themselves a chance of staying up. Indeed, they should have won by more than two goals.

At the heart of a big team performance was creative Spanish midfield player Victor Camarasa, a player who has a big role to play. It was worrying that Camarasa went off injured, but the three-week break before playing Chelsea means he has time to rest and relax.

Cardiff midfield player Harry Arter said: “We outworked them and had a lot of quality on the ball. We raised our level of performance and put things right on the pitch after a hard week in training.

“Everything we’ve done this season has been fighting until the end, until the last three games. It’s always been a united dressing room. There has been no rift in this squad.”

This is the fourth successive away match in which West Ham have failed to score, but that should not take anything away from a lively and spirited Bluebirds squad who are prepared to scrap their way all the way to the end of this season.

Mentally, too, City were spot on. They stayed calm under pressure, dealing with situations in a composed manner.